Exactly one year ago today, we met our badass goofball of a bird dog for the first time. We were very nervous. Some of our best friends met us at O’Hare after our connecting flight to Peoria got delayed and drove us there in single digit temps and light snow swirling and drifting over the dark and largely vacant country highway ...

Picking up from the last post, I'll turn now to Lincoln's introduction to the act of hunting through one of the questions that was unresolved for us for much of this past year. Of all the hunting questions that have loomed large for me and Lincoln this first year, this one has been perhaps the largest: prey drive. Namely: 1) does the human dude have what it takes to move past the seductive romance of upland hunting that was acquired secondarily through the love of a dog and face the reality of actually hunting a bird, killing it and ...

In these bright blue November days, a few things are turning my mind to the swift passage of time and my own frustrated desire to turn it back or hold it at bay. First, our sweet boy turned one year old this week. I simply cannot believe Lincoln is a full-year-old. I know it's cliche, but I'll ask it anyway, where has the time gone? I've probably got some company in saying that this past year has seemed so surreal. A year ago plus a few days, our social fabric was torn asunder by the unexpected result of ...